Marker Monday - Simple Christmas Gifts for Teachers

I never really looked forward to Christmas when I was a teacher because inevitably Christmas in a school meant candy and cookies in the teacher's lounge and Christmas gifts of candy and cookies from students. I'm all for candy and cookies but sometimes teachers get hit with an overload of sugar!


Over the Thanksgiving weekend, after Yip and Yap and I were sufficiently stuffed with turkey and pie and needed something to keep us busy during Yahoo's naptime, we sat down to work on some teacher Christmas gifts not loaded with sugar. I actually got this idea from Pioneer Woman last Christmas.


A nativity set! We spray painted some sanded scrap 2x4's and then hot glued scraps of fabric, felt, pipe cleaners and ricrac. I think we made 4 or 5 sets and it went much quicker than I anticipated.


Yap also found some ceramic floor tiles left in our garage from the previous owners. For the last couple of weeks he's been making tons of coffee coasters out of them; this is just a little sample of his creations. He covered them with watered down glue and tissue paper. After they dried we added a layer of polyurthene on top and glued felt to the bottom.

I've really enjoyed working on these projects with the boys. First of all it gets them really thinking about giving to others without just buying something off a shelf. Besides these gifts cost us practically nothing to make.

What about you? Are you making any handmade gifts to give this Christmas season?

Turkey Day Decorations

Do you need some last minute Turkey Day decorations? Here's a few you can whip up from stuff you probably have laying around the house!


No long tedious instructions, these pictures tell their own story. Grab your glue gun and craft stash and put your kids to work. You know, kids, those little monkeys who have the day off from school. Keep em' busy until the feast is served!

Construction paper, scissors, glue

A lone knit glove, fabric, glue gun and plastic lid.

Pinecone, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, fabric, puffball and hot glue gun.

Marker Monday - Pinecone Wreath

HA! I found another project for all those pine cones in my front yard.

 (Hmmm...is pine cones one word or two? I'll just type it both ways so I'm right!)

A Pinecone Wreath!

I made one of these years ago but it's packed away with my Christmas decorations.

It was easier to make another than find that one!

Start off with a wire coat hanger and bunches of pinecones. Soak the pinecones in water overnight. Yahoo came in "hand"y for this project :P

The pinecone on the left is dry and the one on the right has been soaked. In this case, the wet pinecone tightened up. I'm not sure if all kinds of pinecones will do this or not.

Use the pliers to cut the hook off your hanger then shape it into a circle.

With a butter knife, or something similar, pry the pine wedges apart. What are those things on a pinecone called anyway?

Then slide the coat hanger between the wedges. The pinecones will slide around the hanger but will become more firmly set in place once they dry out.

Once your wreath is full you should probably let it dry for a day or two before continuing to the next step. But I was impatient and wanted to get this done so I went on while the pinecones were still wet, which resulted in my wreath falling apart three days later. Warning: WAIT for your pinecones to dry! Have more patience than me!!

Now, lay it on a piece of cardboard and roughlytrace the inside and outside of the wreath.

Then cut the cardboard in a circle, a width that will be hidden behind the pinecones. This circle is roughly 1 1/2" wide.

With a hot glue gun, attach the cardboard to the pinecones. This will make the whole thing more stable and sturdier for hanging and storage. I also put glue between the pinecones' wedges where the wire hanger was to add more stability. There's no such thing as too much glue!! Fire away baby!

Now that you have a sturdy, DRY wreath...(mine obviously wasn't dry)...cut out some leaves from felt....

....add some embroideried accents....

...and hot glue onto the finished wreath!

I'd guess this would take a couple hours to complete without counting soaking and drying times. Hope yours turned out better than mine did! Half of mine is laying on the floor because I didn't wait for it to dry. I'm still waiting for God to grant me patience!

Marker Monday - School Clothes Organizers

Since the boys have been in school I have found that I have to find ways to keep Yahoo entertained. She's 18 months old and never been more than a couple hours away from her brothers. Oh, she doesn't necessarily miss them while they are at school but we've learned Yahoo doesn't have anything to do when she's by herself! Her form of playing is following Yip and Yap around or wrestling with them or letting them chase her around the house. (Yep, she enjoys being chased by boys....should I start worrying about that??)


Like I said....we need to find things to do. I came across the idea of a week's worth of school clothes organizing here and thought I could kill two birds with one stone. I'd get the boys organized for school in the mornings and give Yahoo a craft project to do one day. DR thinks I'm OCD for making these but he doesn't realize we NEED something to do. Hey, we can eat only so many bon-bons honey!

I started by cutting a piece of felt into two tags like this. The hole should be big enough for your clothes hanger's hook to fit through.

Then with a bottle of glue and a pile of felt scraps Yahoo went to town. I spread on the glue and she smeared glue everywhere placed the felt pieces neatly on the tags. We had to reglue quite a bit but Yahoo had fun and that's what counts.

Now Yip and Yap can pick out their clothes for the whole week, begin a good habit that will carry over into college and positively influence thier entire fraternity and be neatly organized for the rest of their lives!!

Okay, get up off the floor....it's not that funny. Hey, if they use these tags for a couple weeks I'll be happy.

At least I've tried!!